- The Star has reliably established that the matter was extensively discussed when the former Prime Minister met with his close confidantes at his Karen home on Wednesday.
- He gave express instructions to party members to deal with the bill as it is, and not waste more time in the deadlock of whether the bill can be amended or not.
Image: ODM Party communications
ODM leader Raila Odinga has cracked the whip on his allies behind the push to amend the BBI Bill, saying debate should begin without further delay.
The Star has reliably established that the matter was extensively discussed when the former Prime Minister met with his close confidantes at his Karen home on Wednesday.
He gave express instructions to the party members to deal with the bill as it is, and not waste more time in the deadlock of whether the bill can be amended or not.
Raila put a stop to the power games around the BBI said to be played by some second-term governors and some members of the House committee tackling the bill.
The push for further changes to the Constitution of Kenya (Amendment) Bill, 2020, has caused delays in tabling of the report in the respective Houses of Parliament.
“The push for amendments is by persons who want the BBI to collapse for their own political gain. That is why they are blowing hot and cold on this matter,” a member of Raila’s inner circle familiar with the proceedings said.
Siaya Senator James Orengo, a key voice in Raila's camp, had given the clearest indication that they wanted Parliament to amend the BBI Bill.
A similar view was shared by MPs Olago Aluoch (Kisumu West), Jared Okelo (Nyando), TJ Kajwang (Ruaraka), and Peter Kaluma (Homa Bay Town).
To give credence to the machinations in the pro-BBI camp, Ugunja MP Opiyo Wandayi – Raila’s close ally – on Thursday issued a statement with calls for immediate debate on the bill.
The lawmaker, in what appears to be a statement done with Raila’s blessings, said Parliament must move with speed to dispense with the bill.
Wandayi, who is ODM political affairs secretary, alluded to forces in the BBI team that were giving parallel directions on how to handle the bill.
The Ugunja MP said such persons were only expressing their personal opinions as Raila has already given his pronouncements on the BBI.
“In ODM, we only have one leader who is Raila Odinga. He is the one who gives us the direction that we follow. The rest of us can only express personal opinions,” Wandayi said.
The Public Accounts Committee chairman added that “such personal opinions must be carefully managed in order not to create confusion.”
The MP said “the country cannot afford to lose any single day in this crucial journey through procrastination”, adding that “the Covid-19 pandemic is, apparently, here to stay.”
Wandayi called on the leaders of Majority and Minority parties in the National Assembly and Senate to petition the respective speakers to convene special sittings by Thursday, April 8, 2021, to deal with the BBI Bill.
“Anything short of this would be a reckless abdication of duty by the four House leaders. The Houses can, and should, debate the bill and vote on it on a single afternoon,” he said.
Wandayi said the debate should proceed “irrespective of the outcome of the never-ending deliberations of the joint Committee on Justice, Legal and Constitutional Affairs.”
The thinking in Raila’s inner circle is that the Houses do not need to wait for a report from the committee.
In the event the joint House team fails to generate a report, they should just table the memoranda, petitions, reports and representations they received during the public hearings.
The idea is stemming from the concession that “the roadmap for the amendment of the Constitution as set out under Article 257 is so clear and unambiguous that it requires no belabouring”.
“The two major remaining steps are a vote on the Bill in Parliament and the people’s verdict at the referendum. Anything else is just but splitting of hairs,” Wandayi said.
He said the constitutional amendment process should not be held captive by “elements that are preoccupied with unhelpful power plays and succession games within their respective political parties and ethnic nations.”
Raila’s party concedes that not everything that stakeholders had wanted to be captured in the proposed constitutional amendments saw the light of the day.
“We, however, take consolation in the fact that, historically, the social, political and economic gains that this country has realised have always been incremental,” Wandayi said.
“Therefore, the task we have at hand is to pass the BBI Bill as it is in Parliament and at the referendum. The rest we can deal with later,” he said.
The MP said from his own analysis, the benefits in the BBI Bill far much outweigh the costs, real or perceived.
A member of the JLAC - from the Kieleweke faction, further intimated to the Star of the forces that have been piling pressure on the committee to propose further amendments.
“There is the attempt to have the committee recommend the amendments but we all know that you cannot satisfy everybody. If you open the document to editorial amendments, everybody will keep on asking for changes,” the committee member said.
JLAC vice-chairman Otiende Amollo said there were no disagreements on the report, adding that pointers to the same are insinuations of the media.
“The report is being prepared but now that we are on recess, how does one vote on a bill that is not ready,” he said.
-Edited by Sarah Kanyara